The sad state of audio GetPosition

[Joerg-Cyril.Hoehle at t-systems.com]

Hi,

These exclusive mode test failures look like nothing:
render.c:1086: Test failed: GetCurrentPadding returned 576, should be 0
render.c:1092: Test failed: Position 90720 at end vs. 91296 played frames
but they made me completely rework my model of how mmdevapi works.

91296 = 90720 + 576 remainder
        90720 = 720 * 126
                720 = 15ms period at 48000 frames/s

It looks like only a multiple of period_size frames are rendered.
There are also test runs which end with GCP > period_size despite underrun

Only Vista and w2k8 present these 2 errors.  w2k8R2 and w7 only
present the second one.  In shared mode, GetCurrentPadding (GCP)
returns 0 and GetPosition returns all submitted ("played") frames.
What happened?

Possible explanations:
Vista + w2k8 exclusive mode:
a) Bug in native that forgets to account for sub-period_size data. Or
b) Play only multiples of period size.  Wait until period_size data
   accumulates before sending the next packet.
c) other...

w2k8R2 + w7 exclusive mode:
a) Bug in native that sets GCP to 0 (like in shared mode). Or
b) At each period tick, only play data if a full period is available.
   Drop partially filled buffers (explains padding = 0) instead of
   playing them much later when the buffer fills up (no ghost sounds).
c) Bug in native that forgets to increment Position yet plays data.
d) other...

shared mode:
a) At each 10ms period tick, mix a period_size of all streams that
   provided a full period of data.  Ignore other streams yet always
   decrement GetCurrentPadding and sum played/ignored frames.
b) At each 10ms period tick, mix all streams.  Handle streams with
   padding < period_size as follows:
   - if previous frame was full, mix at beginning of buffer (trailer)
   - otherwise mix at end (expect beginning of next sound)
c) At each 10ms period tick, mix all streams, padding streams with
   less than period_size frames with silence (i.e. mix at beginning).
d) other...
If I were MS, I'd implement heuristic b).

This is all unlike what Wine does...

I'll probably write audible audio tests in the next few weeks to be
able to test what native does (e.g. emit a short beep < period size
every few ms and listen to what happens).

Regards,
	Jörg Höhle